The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-05-19
DWARFS AND MIDGETS.
The whims and Oddities of These Little
People.

tHFAN'
The dwarf business isn't what it
once was.
William Wheeler. for years midget
speculator. leaned musingly against
the anarchist cage and endeaVOred to
catch the eye of the waNy August Spies,
who was staring at Miss Van Zandt
across the hail.
Then, too, continued Mr.. Wheeler.
'.dwarfs are running out. A few years
ago they We're springing up, though
not very high, in all parts of the world.
1t seemed to be a sort of dwarf age.
For while a 35-inch dwarf could not
earn a living salary. He had to pos
sess some striking physical feature if
he hoped to secure permanent situa-
tions with museum circuits. Now,
however, all this has changed. Lots of
the old time Lilliputians have passed
away, and a 40-inch freak can get
chair in a first-class curio hall if he is
good-looking and intelligent. The
business was very nearly ruined at one
time by tricksters. As YOU have possi-
bly, observed, midgets without eXcep-
tions have abnormally large heads.
Unprincipled showmen, when the
dwarf supply became inadequate,
would take children with large heads
and old faces and work them upon the
circuits. There suddenly became such
an influx of little folks upon the mar
ket :. none Of the true midgets aside
from 'rs. Stratton or Admiral Dot,
could get work that paid. This has
passed away, and there is no fraud
about the present Representatives OF
dwarfdom.
Il never saw but two perfectly
formed mid@ets. These were Mrs.
Gen. Tom Thumb. who is now Count
ess Rosebud, and Princess Lucy. There
is always some dcformity Take Gen.
Tom Thumb for instance. He was badly
developed in the torso. Other people
have poorly-cOnstructed limbs or arms,
and almost universally they are double
iointed at the knees or elbows. You
see, the lack of stature must be attri-
buted to something, and as nearly as
can make out it Is joints.
"What is the most striking charac-
teristic Of these freaks? Intemperance.
There is no class of people on earth
that Is so given to drink. The males
always like whisky, and the females
dote on beer. Gen. Tom Thumb was
fond of smoking. bat aside from him
tobacco is not used among the men.
Il never knew Of but one family
wherein dwarfs appeared in more than
one generation. This occurred in that
of Admiral Dot. He is the uncle OF
Mai Adams, the midget clown of the
Barnum show. Adams is twenty-one
inches in heighth, and his father was
nearly six feet tall Dot is travelling
about the country now with little Jen-
ME Qui@ley. They earn Jointly 500 a
week.
Speaking about Princess Lucy re-
minds me OF the event that brought her
into prominence. Years ago when
Countess Rosebud was Mrs. Tom
Thumb, a report was circulated that
she had been blessed with a child.
This was not the ease, and the story
was made out of whole cloth by one of
DaTHums advertising agents. The
Thumb family were unconscientious
enough to take advantage of the
cauard. They had heard of the little
Princess Lucy, and Mrs. Thumb sent
for her and offered to adopt her, send
her to a convent for a few years
and Introduce her to the world as her
daughter. The scheme was a capital
one, for it was impossible to tell
whether Lucy is i or 70 wears old. The
princess declined the offer. She is now
earning $500 week for being
eighteen inches high.
There are several instances where
midgets appeared in a single genera
ton OF the family. The Harris sisters
are quadrupletS. They vary in height
from thirty--iX 20 forty-two inches, and
are the daughters OF a very poor man
in Eastport, Me. The father, a
mechanic, was a magnificent specimen
Of physical manhood, large and power
ful Of build, aud the mother was above
medium size. These sisters are badly
Geformed, all Of them having double
iointed elbows. Beides this they en-
JOY the reputation of being the home
iest midget sin the business. Young
Foster, whose nom de museum is Hop
o My Thumb, is twcnty-cight inches
tall. He has baby brother, not vet a
year old that weighed when ten days
old one and one-half pounds.
Lucy Zarata earns the largest
salary of any dwarf in the world. She
is a native of Vera Cruz, Mexico, and
is very small Her head is proper
TONED nicely to her physique, but is
shaped like that of an ape. Joseph
Smith is her manager, and he gets
$500 a week for exhibiting her. The
little women can not win the affections
of ful-grown mankind, but the men
are more fortunate. Baron Little
finger married lady over five feet tail,
and is the happy father of four fine
children. The late Commodore Mutt
welded Manchester, n. H., girl five
feet five inches tall, and left one child
at his death Minnie Warren. sister
Of the Countess Rosebud, it is true,
married a roller-skater named Newell,
who was with Nat Goodwin in the
Skating Rink" Newell however,
while hardly a midget, is greatly under
size.
''Midgets are a nervous lot, and few
of them are more than pasSably in
telligent. They fly off on a tangent
like dove from a hornets nest. Hop
O My Thumb is the uglicst youngster
of them all, and he frequently INDUCES
in spasms of rage. Dangerous? Well,
as much as twenty-eight inches of
humanity could be expected to be."-
Detroit Tribune.
Lady Eden's beautiful invention,
pearline (not the cleaning preparation
i